Aston Villa face a trip to Leicester City this weekend, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look for the encounter at the King Power Stadium.
Villa will be looking to bounce back after our disappointing defeat to Arsenal last time out in the Premier League, a game in which we had the chances to make it back-to-back wins to start the new campaign.
READ MORE: Agreement touted as Villa ace set for loan exit but key detail in expected move
Nevertheless, despite the result, there were still plenty of positives for Emery to take from the performance, and he’ll hope that his side can produce something similar this Saturday afternoon to give ourselves a great opportunity to sign off with three points ahead of the international break.
The expectation is that the Villa boss won’t change too much having settled on a preferred starting XI which gives us balance and fluidity to our play, but there will be one change forced upon him after a fresh injury setback last weekend.
Nedeljkovic to step in for Cash in only Villa change?
Emiliano Martinez will continue between the posts, but there could be a tweak to the backline in front of him, as Matty Cash is now expected to be sidelined for around a month after sustaining a hamstring injury in our defeat to Arsenal.
Emery will undoubtedly provide an update on his status in his pre-match press conference on Friday in terms of a recovery timeline, but the Polish international is not going to be available for selection this weekend.
That in turn should open the door for Kosta Nedeljkovic to continue to deputise for him, as Emery noted last week that he prefers to keep Ezri Konsa in place at centre-half rather than shift him across to fill in at right-back.
The 18-year-old overcame a nervous start to put in a decent shift against the Gunners, and so it’s hoped he’s taken a lot from that experience to build on and put in a positive display against Leicester.
Elsewhere in defence, it’s as we were with Lucas Digne, Pau Torres and Konsa completing the back four, albeit Ian Maatsen is likely to be closing in on a starting berth sooner rather than later.
Our midfield pivot of Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans is expected to remain in place given their impressive start to the season, and there’s no real need at this stage to disrupt that partnership with rotation as they’re continuing to build a solid foundation in the heart of the side.
It could be the same scenario further up the pitch too, with Leon Bailey, Morgan Rogers and John McGinn likely to provide support behind Ollie Watkins in the final third.
Watkins had a game to forget last time out after missing two golden opportunities to give us the lead, and so it would be a real boost for both him and Villa if he can find the back of the net in this one to start finding some form again.
Similarly to Maatsen, Jacob Ramsey is arguably knocking on the door for a start in the coming weeks, but with the international break to follow, it’s easy to see Emery going with an unchanged attacking unit and trying to replicate the positive signs we saw last weekend.
Villa have continued to trim the squad this week with further outgoings, but with the likes of Diego Carlos, Ross Barkley, Emiliano Buendia, Jaden Philogene and Jhon Duran on the bench too with Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara to join them soon, we’ll still hopefully have more than enough quality on the bench to change the game if required.
